Cheery blankets given to children

On the second Friday of each month, the craft room at the Center for Building Hope buzzes with Blanket Bees.

Armed with fabric and scissors, the Blanket Bees lovingly craft warm fleece blankets to give to area children who are dealing with the treatment or loss of a family member to cancer.

The Sarasota Area Tri-Delta Alumnae Chapter started the local program in 2011 as part of the sorority's national focus on helping children who are dealing with cancer.

Tri-Delta members host fundraising events to pay for the fabric and supplies, and the Blanket Bee founder and chairwoman, Glenda Edwards, creates the patterns for the double-sided blankets.

Once a month, chapter members are joined at the Center for Building Hope in Lakewood Ranch by cancer survivors and women receiving treatment. They assemble the blankets by cutting and tying off fabric ribbons around the perimeter; no sewing is necessary.

Completed blankets are delivered to children at Camp Healing Hearts in Bradenton and to area children's hospitals.

"What's nice is that it's a very low-key thing, but very uplifting," Tri-Delta alumna and cancer survivor Laurie Halladay said. "The women start talking while they work. Sometimes they talk about their treatments; other times, everyone laughs and sings together. Your hands are busy and your mind is cheered, and you get to walk away feeling positive because you've done something good for someone else."

Andrea Feldmar, program director at Center for Building Hope, noted the value of the Blanket Bees.

"The participants are all people who have been touched by cancer, and it's a good opportunity for them to give back," Feldmar said. "When you come here, you're not walking into that dark cave you felt like when you received that diagnosis. This is a healing, hopeful place."

Edwards received the Tri-Delta sorority's Ernestine Block Grigsby Award in 2010 when she started the original Blanket Bee as an extension of the Tri-Deltas' work with K.I.D.S. by the Sea, a support organization for families with children battling cancer.

"I felt very honored, but shocked that I won an award just for tying knots," Edwards said. "This is the kind of thing you don't do for the recognition; you do it because it's the right thing to do."